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Attorney General Lockyer Appoints Expert on Community Policing to Review Progress of Major Police Reforms in Riverside

Friday, June 22, 2001

Contact: (415) 703-5837, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

(RIVERSIDE, Calif.) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced today the appointment of Joseph Brann, a nationally recognized expert on community-oriented policing and veteran police officer, to review the major reforms to be undertaken by the Riverside Police Department over the next five years.

Brann will assist the Attorney General in overseeing the Riverside Police Department's compliance with terms of a March 5 court order designed to improve police practices and policies. The court order is the first of its kind in the nation secured by a state attorney general.

"Joe Brann understands the importance of professionalism in our police departments and having law enforcement officers connected and working closely with the communities they police," Lockyer said. "He will serve as a valued advisor to me as the Riverside Police Department works to achieve its goal of becoming a model police agency in California."

Brann until April 1999 served as director of the COPS Office in the United States Department of Justice, responsible for advancing community policing nationally through grants to support over 13,000 state and local law enforcement agencies. During his four-year tenure, Brann issued grants for over 100,000 local police officers, created national strategies to support the expansion of community policing at the state and local level, and advocated for and provided funding to conduct research, implement new strategies and evaluate programs dealing with critical contemporary issues. These issues included racial profiling, police ethics and integrity, youth firearm violence, gangs and domestic violence. Brann was honored as the "1998 Person of the Year" by the Law Enforcement News for the creation of 3-1-1, the national non-emergency public safety telephone number.

Brann was the Chief of Police for the City of Hayward, Calif., from 1990-1995, and served 21 years as a police officer and Captain in the City of Santa Ana Police Department. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from California State University, Fullerton, and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Southern California.

Brann's assignment will be to provide the Attorney General with regular reports evaluating the remedial plans and policies being developed by the Riverside Police Department pursuant to the court order. The Attorney General will use the reports to determine if satisfactory progress is being made on the reforms outlined in the court order.

The court-ordered reforms were sought by the Attorney General in the wake of the 1998 police shooting death of Tyisha Miller, a 19-year old black woman. The City of Riverside and the local police department have agreed to the reforms. The court-ordered reforms require the Riverside Police Department to create a detailed reform plan and sets a series of deadlines over the next five years for the changes to take place. The plan specifically must address increased training and supervision of police officers, improvements in community complaint review procedures, and improvements in the monitoring of roll calls and officers in the field through use of audio recorders and video cameras in police vehicles. The police department also is required to provide more education for officers in such areas as field training, diversity training, management training for supervisory personnel and training on the improper use of pretext stops.